Ivanka Trump describes her life as the daughter of a potential US president, running the Trump empire, and building her own brand

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

You saw her introduce Donald Trump when he formally announced his presidential candidacy last year. You've seen her at his side on the campaign trail, and on Thursday night you saw her introduce her father as the Republican presidential nominee at the party's convention.

But Ivanka Trump has more going on in her life than politics.

As executive vice president of development and acquisitions at The Trump Organization, she's taken over running Donald's real-estate empire with her brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, while her father focuses on campaigning.

And as head of the Ivanka Trump lifestyle brand, she's aiming to inspire women with articles about #WomenWhoWork while promoting her clothing, jewelry, and accessories lines geared toward young professional women.

In March, I spoke with Ivanka about her life, what it's like running the Trump empire, and the challenges of building her own brand.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What is it like to be Ivanka Trump?

In a work capacity I've been tremendously busy running The Trump Organization now that my father's on the campaign trail and my own company and the growth of that. So it's been an amazing time, a wild experience, and an incredible one.

You've also been campaigning with your dad. What's that been like?

Well, in the capacity of a very proud daughter. Obviously to be able to see this transpiring, to watch him achieve so much as a politician — and we're certainly not a family of politicians, and politics is certainly not our family business — it's been amazing.

So it's exciting for me to be able to be with him for major moments and stand by his side, and I'm very proud of him as a daughter and as somebody who's worked beside him for the past decade at The Trump Organization.

What does a typical day look like for you?

There is no typical day, and that's especially true these days and part of what is exciting about my life, both personally and professionally.

Having young children always means that there's a fair amount of chaos at home, but that's part of the fun. And from a work perspective, we have projects under construction all over the world, including many right here in the US.

We have the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue [in Washington, DC] — the most sought-after hotel and redevelopment opportunity in the country, which we were awarded a couple of years ago — that's under construction and opening in September. So that is a project that I am very, very focused on.

For me professionally as well I've built an incredible business that I'm very proud of that is my own brand and that is both creating incredible content to empower and inspire this next generation of working women through a digital platform, mainly through my website, IvankaTrump.com, our email newsletters, and our social-media platforms.

We're generating an enormous amount of content geared at this young professional woman, which has been resonating strongly. We also have been creating solution-oriented products for that same person that will help her transition in life through her many roles, whether they may be mother, girlfriend, professional, and really everything in between.

So there's no typical day, but I transition through the course of my business day by doing everything from construction meetings on the development project under construction to design meetings for an upcoming apparel delivery to acquisition meetings about projects we're looking to acquire. It's very diverse in terms of content, substance, and what I address on a typical day.